Dreaming of His Pen Pal's Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,40
parents.
“Wow, I feel kinda bad even mentioning the horse thing. I just fell off one, you know, like every other kid in the world. Although I happened to break my arm. I haven’t ridden one since. And yeah, I can see the wisdom behind the whole adage about falling off a horse and getting right back on, because so many years have gone by and I avoid the whole idea of even being around horses. Because there’s this thought in the back of my head that it hurts.” He looked around, although they were the only ones at the chimneys. “Don’t tell anyone. Kinda ruins my tough-guy image.”
She was hunched down in the fireplace, trying to get up enough nerve to stand up. That was probably the first step in getting up the chimney. “Trust me. Your secret is safe with me.”
She meant that as a joke, or maybe flippantly, but rather than smile, he kind of grimaced, and she got the idea that maybe there were people who would actually sell his secrets to make money. She wasn’t that into sports, but he might be a big enough name that there were people who’d be interested in that information, and she could make money on it.
She supposed assuring him with more words that she would keep her word wasn’t really helpful.
In her experience, a person had to back their words up with action, because words that said one thing and actions that said something else made the words worthless.
Right now wasn’t the time anyway. They had a contest to not lose.
Chapter 15
Dante hunkered down beside Journee. Obviously, she was fighting her fear pretty hard. It was frustrating to watch and not be able to do anything.
“I don’t know if it helps or not, but I’m here,” he said, looking her straight in the eye.
“It does. Thank you. I feel like I’m being a huge baby.” She let out a shaky laugh and looked up. “It feels like it’s smaller than it was the last time I did it. But I kind of feel like this is like jumping into a swimming pool. The best thing to do is to just go to the deep end and jump.” Still, she didn’t move.
“Tell you what, I’ll sing a silly song, a really silly Christmas song, nice and loud and deep, so it echoes through the chimney, while you’re going up. You can close your eyes, because it’ll be dark, and my voice will be right there, right beside you. How’s that?”
“You don’t have to do that.” Although the thought made her smile, and he thought maybe some of the stiffness released from her shoulders.
“It’s the least I can do, since you’re going first.” He winked, and they grinned at each other, sharing a little joke.
She took a breath and stood, and he put his head right down next to her knees, and as she leaned back against one side, pushing herself up, he started to bellow the silliest Christmas song he could think of.
“Momma left carrots for Santa Claus,
Along with a tall glass of juice,
She said that dieting would help his cause,
But Dad said he’s not a moose...”
He finished the first verse, totally making it up off the cuff, just as she yelled down, “I’m up. I made it. I’ve got the flag. Sing some more, because I’m coming down.”
So, he made up a second verse to the silliest Christmas song ever.
“After my parents went off to bed,
I sneaked down and switched the plate,
Cookies and milk as the songs said,
Coal lumps would not be my fate!”
Her feet plopped to the ground as he finished.
She ducked under, coming out, all smiles, her cheeks flushed. Her eyes sparkling. “That’s a fantastic strategy – make me laugh too hard to feel claustrophobic. Totally worked!”
He stared at her, having to bite back the words to tell her that she was beautiful and brave and hilarious.
Instead, he said, “Of all the people in the world that I could be paired up with in the Not Such an Ironman Ironman Contest, I think you would be my very first pick.”
Even that was more than he should have said probably. After the words came out, he ducked under and stood up in the chimney. Climbing up wasn’t that hard, although he was definitely on the big side to be squeezing in. Whoever had built the chimney hadn’t figured on someone his size being a part of the contest.
Still, he was able to easily grab the flag at the